Game-counter



(No Model.) 0.1i. ISBURGH.

GAME OUNTER.

Patented Aug. 13, 1895 u ...3. v w@ 77 /NE/vofr MJfL/M/ BY www@ W/TNESSES.'

A TTOHN E YS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

oHAnLEsH. IsBURGH, or MELROSE', uAssAcI-IusETTs.

GAME-couNriau.`

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters raient No. 544,582, dated August 13, 1895.

' Application filed March 23, 1895. Serial No, 542,914. l(No model.) i

To a/ZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. IsBUnGH, of Melrose, inthe county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Game-Counter, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention has for its object to provide a light, cheap, simple, and positive indicator for keeping account of the number of points played in games of cards, dominoes, and the like, dispensing with separate and independent counters, and making the indicator a permanent attachment to or a portion of a table, the leading feature of my invention being that when the score is recorded by either of the antagonists it is immediately placed before each of the other players, the change ot' score requiring the easiest and slightest manipulation for the result.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination ofthe several parts,

as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar tigures and letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both the views.

Figure 1 is a partial plan view and partial sectional view of atable having the indicator applied thereto, and Fig. 2 is a plan View of the lowermost disk of the indicator and the parts coacting with it.

In the drawings, A represents the top of a table especially intended for four players and particularly for use in the game of whist. The round openings in the table, marked 10, indicate the record-points for north and south, and the openings 11 indicate the record-points for east and west. The openings 12 are intended to show the number of games Won by north and south, and the openings 18 the games gained by east and west; or these openings 12 and 13 may be used to indicate the number of ten-points made by the opposing parties. Thus the figures given inthe drawings may indicate that one side has won tive games and made two points on another game, the other side having won three games and made two points on the next game, or the points and games'may be otherwise counted, if desired-as, for example, these openings may be made to indicate that one side has made fiftytwo points and the other side thirty-two points,just as the players may deeide to play.

The openings 14 in the table are adapted to show the trump, and the disk upon which the indices of the cards are placed mayhave tive spaces, one of them being a blank, if so desired. These openings in the table are provided with glass disks orI their equivalents, leaving the surface of the table smooth and flush to be played upon; and if a cloth-covered table is used the glass disks are intended to bind the edges of the cloth at the openings to the face of the table, preventing frayingl or rising of the cloth at those points.

Two large disks B and B are .held to revolve beneath the table, being provided with a suitable central pivot. These disks are preferably made. of light sheet metal, although other material may be employed, and the disks may be of differentdiameters, or ot' the same diameter as illustrated, but the diameter-of the disks must be sufficient to cover the openings 10 and 11 in the table-top.

When the disks are of equal diameter openings 15 are made in the uppermost disk or that nearest the table-top, the openings being sufticiently large to permit numbers on the lower disk to be visible at the top of the table at the openings 10. These large disks B and B are revolved in opposite directions and are provided with series of numbers indicating points in the game. The numbering on the whistdisks is divided into four equal parts b, each quarter-circumference embracing the numerals 0 to 9, as shown. In this manner the disks will be divided into forty equal spaces, or four spaces ot' ten numerals each,` and opposite each number on a disk a tooth 16, key, or projection is either made integral with the disks or is attached thereto, and the disks are rotated-one by a partner on each side--l through the medium ot' slides or levers 17, held to move in slideways beneath the table, and each disk is provided with a substantially Y- shaped stop-lever 1S, pivoted to suitable supports adjacent to the disks and adapted to engage with the teeth of the disks and to prevent the disks turning in any but one direction. Each slide 17 is provided with a spring-controlled dog 17, adapted when the slide is drawn outward to engage with a tooth 16 and rotate the disk. Two slides are used in connection'with each disk, being arranged at op- IOO posite sides, and one slide is brought into aetion when the games or points are being counted, while the other slide is used for reversing the disk to carry the figures thereon to the starting'point, presenting zero at the openingsIO and 11. In this latter event the Y levers or pawls 18 are carried out of engagement With the teeth of the disks.

Each outward movement of the proper slide 17 will move the disk it is intended to operate forward one number, and the same numbers will simultaneously appear at openings indi eating points in front of each player; and it may here be remarked that a gong or other alarm may be employed to indicate to the players that a slide has been manipulated and a count made.

Small disks 19 are journaled beneath the table at each corner, bearing the indices of the cards, as heretofore stated, and these indices are so arranged that they will be brought opposite the openings 14 in the table to indicate the trump. All of these tru mp-disks are simultaneously moved, and each of the said disks is provided with a small pulley 19t', upon its under or upper face, as may loe found most desirable, and an endless belt 19a is carried to an engagement With all of the pulleys, one of the trump-disks being rotated by a handlever 19c or its equivalent; and when this one disk is rotated all of the rest of them will move a corresponding distance.

In addition to the trump-disks, game-disks are employed, two being used in connection with each of the score-disks B and B', and the game-disks are mounted to revolve at the corners of the table, the game-disks of each score-disk being diagonally opposite or in diagonally-opposite corners, as shown particularly in Fig. 2, and they revolve so as to present numbers produced upon their upper faces and reading from O to 9 at the openings 12 and 13 in the table.

The gamedisks belonging to the upper score-disk B are designated by the reference numeral 25, and those belonging to the lower disk B are designated by the reference-numeral 26. Each game-disk is provided With peripheral ratchetteeth 27, and each scoredisk is provided with four pins 2S, projecting from the periphery, being placed at equal distances apart, one opposite the cipher of each numerical division on the score-disk. Thus as each game is played and the full score is made the pins 2S, as the score-disk is revolved, will, by engaging with the ratchetteeth of the gaine-disks belonging to it, turn the game-disks a distance to change the numeral one digit at the opening 12 or 13, according to the disks moved.

The game-disks record the number of times ten points have been made, and therefore the ratehet-teeth'27 are ten in number.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. In a game indicator, a table having a series of score and game openings therein, two score openings being opposite each player, dials held to rotate beneath the score openings; having figures thereon adapted to appear at said score openings, an independent operating device for each dial, game disks located adjacent to the dials beneath the game openings, projections carried by the dials, and teeth produced on the game disks to be engaged by the said dial projections, the projections of the dial being placed opposite the termination of each series of iigures on the dial, the series representing the number of scores necessary for a game, whereby Whcn a game has been played and the score dial rotated to show the last score number, the game disk Will be moved snlliciently to present an advance 'ligure at the opening provided for it in the table, as set forth.

2. In a game indicator, a table having game openings and score openings made therein, dials having numbers thereon indieating scores, said numbers being arranged to pass across the score openings ot' the table, a game disk located at each side of each score dial, having numbers adapted to appear at the game openings in the table, the game disks being operated from the score dials, and slides provided with pawls, arranged one at each side ot each score dial and adapted to rotate the same in one or the other direction,

as and for the purpose specified.

3. In a game indicator, a table having game openings made therein, dials having numbers thereon indicating scores, the said numbers being arranged to pass across the score openings of the table, a game disk located at each side of each score dial, having numbers adapted to appear at the game openings in the table, the game disks being operated from the score dials, slides provided With pawls arranged one at each side of each score dial and adapted to rotate the saine in one or the other direction, and trump disks held to revolve beneath trump openings in the table, and means, substantially as described, for moving all of the trump disks simultaneously and independently of the game disks or score dials, as and for the purpose speeilied.

et. A game indicator, comprising a board having openings therein,- score dials arranged below the board, slides provided with pawls for engaging the score dials to operate them, gaine disks at the sides of the score dials and operated therefrom, trump disks at the corners of the board, pulleys on the disks, an endless belt passing around the pulleys, and means for operating one ot' the said disks, substantially as herein shown and described.

GHAS. II. ISBURGII. NVitneSses:

FRED T. KIMBALL, Guo. K. Mener.

IlO 

